[DeltAlum]

This chapter lucked out, I think.

The Associated Press
May 31, 2002

Supreme Court refuses to reinstate lawsuit over hazing incident

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The state Supreme Court refused Friday to reinstate
a lawsuit against a University of Kansas fraternity over a 1997
incident that left a student in an alcohol-induced coma.

Matthew Prime filed the lawsuit against Pi Kappa Alpha in 1999 in
Douglas County District Court, seeking more than $375,000 in damages.
Also named as defendants were several leaders of the fraternity at
the time, the fraternity's national organization and the Mount Oread
House Corp., which holds title to the house.

In his lawsuit, Prime said he attended a February 1997 event at the
house that was a ritual in the fraternity's membership process. He
claimed pledges were encouraged or coerced into drinking large
quantities of beer and hard liquor.

Prime, then 19, eventually passed out, and fraternity members took
him to a hospital emergency room, where he was comatose from alcohol
poisoning for 12 hours, according to the lawsuit.

He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.294 percent, when the legal limit
was 0.08 percent. The university later suspended the fraternity.

But Douglas County District Judge Michael J. Malone dismissed Prime's
lawsuit before a trial, ruling that Kansas law and court rulings
don't recognize the right to sue over someone furnishing alcohol to
underage drinkers. He also said that Prime voluntarily consumed
alcohol.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision upheld Malone's ruling.

"Kansas does not impose liability on the supplier of alcoholic
beverages for harm suffered by a minor due to intoxication," Justice
Donald Allegrucci wrote in the court's opinion.

The case is Matthew J. Prime vs. Beta Gamma Chapter of Pi Kappa
Alpha, et al., No. 85,861.

(c0 2002 The Associated Press.